The Eyes have it
by Jocose
Summary: Owen's first day at Torchwood 3 from Tosh's perspective.


Toshiko leaned back in her chair and glanced through the narrow gap between the bottom of her computer screen and the top edge of her desk, if she leaned slightly to one side she could just make out the bottom of the rolling doorway. She yawned, then checked that the slowly growing list of names hadn't completed- it hadn't!

Standing up, she wandered over to the other work station, typed in something on the keyboard and then peered up at one of the monitors.

A surveillance picture flickered, then stabilised, and she watched a man as he paced up and down, outside the doorway to the tourist information centre.

"Hello, Owen Harper," she murmured to herself, then accessed the images from another camera, then another.

Where on earth had Jack got to? She shrugged and went back to the first image. Owen had stopped pacing, and was now leaning against a metal barrier. It looked like he could be in for a long wait!

Toshiko sighed, and headed for the staircase up to the overhead walkway, she needed a drink! As she passed her workstation, she glanced at the computer's options to her search, but it was still slowly updating.

Great! Just what she needed- yet another computer assisted, wild goose chase.

. . . .

Filling the kettle, she turned to plug it in, at the same moment, the warning siren triggered, and the hub door rolled to one side.

Toshiko jumped and swore under her breath, was it really necessary for it to do that? Looking down onto the floor of the hub, she watched as Jack stepped through the doorway, followed by Torchwood's new medic.

Taking advantage of the chance to see the new arrival, before he could see her, she looked him up and down. A smile tweaked the corner of her lips, he looked cute, in a depressed sort of a way.

Jack rotated on the balls of his feet, quickly looking around him, his coat doing its usual theatrical twirl.

"Toshiko?" He yelled, then turning back to Owen, smiled, and said, "She'll be around here somewhere. You've already had the guided tour, so it's just a case of getting you settled. I don't think there will be anything extra you'll need in the autopsy room, but if there is, just shout and I'll see what I can do."

Owen nodded, murmured, "Thank you," then looked around, clearly expecting someone to arrive.

Tosh gripped the handrail and looked over, "You looking for me?" she asked.

Jack looked up and grinned, "Owen, **that**," he nodded up towards her, "Is Toshiko Sato, IT genius and general all round brain box," he said, clearly amused at what he had said.

"Toshiko, meet Owen Harper, our new medic."

Toshiko nodded down at Owen and smiled, he slowly returned the smile. Not with one she would have categorised as nervous, she thought to herself, more... reluctant.

"Would you like a coffee?"she asked politely.

Jack nodded his approval, "Good idea," he turned slightly, "Owen, why don't you go up there and make yourself at home?"

Owen smiled, murmured something and then looked around for the stairs.

Jack pulled at his arm, and pointed him in the right direction. "Watch the kettle... it's blown up twice already this week," then added more loudly, so Tosh could hear, "Not that I'm blaming anyone in particular, **Toshiko**... just the last person who forgot to put water into it before she turned it on ...**again**!"

Toshiko winced and looked apologetic, "Sorry about that- I got sidetracked."

Jack smirked, "I knew an executioner once, that was his standard excuse for everything as well- not that I'm complaining, if he hadn't I wouldn't be here now!"

Owen stared at him, clearly not sure how to take the last comment.

Jack laughed and shook his head, "You'll soon learn to ignore me... everyone else does," he said, turning away and heading for his office.

Owen made his way up the stairs and towards Toshiko.

She smiled quietly as he approached, he returned the smile, his gaze flipped across her face briefly, then dipped somewhere towards knee level and hovered, not really concentrating on anything in particular.

Not being able to make any eye contact with him, she turned away, thinking that perhaps a drink might break the ice.

"There should be a clean mug around here somewhere," she murmured glancing into a few, then deciding perhaps there wasn't.

Finally selecting the nearest, she tipped boiling water into it and swirled it around.

"I think maybe this could have been one of Suzie's," she said, watching bits of solder bob about, she grimaced, emptied it out into the sink and then selected another one. "This should be okay," she murmured and washed it out.

She glanced over at Owen, he was staring blankly at the floor, his thoughts clearly miles away. Suddenly realising that she was looking at him, he blinked, then managed a forced a smile, which faded rapidly, then his attention shifted back to the same place on the floor.

Quickly wiping the mug dry, she checked the kettle had re boiled, then hesitated, not sure if she should look towards him or just keep talking and not turn round.

Eventually she settled for the latter, and picking up a spoon, grabbed the jar of coffee powder and enquired, "Weak or strong, or would you rather have tea?" Then stood, staring blankly at the jar, not sure if he had heard her or not.

Just at the point when she thought she was going to have to repeat the question, Owen sudden murmured back, "Coffee's fine thanks, not too strong, milk and sugar."

"What you just said, coming up," she said cheerfully, making up the drink, then turned towards him. "Milk and sugar is over there, help yourself," she said holding out his drink towards him.

Owen took hold of it, murmured his thanks and then turned towards the table.

Toshiko glanced vaguely at his profile, then stared, and found herself thinking, "God, I'd kill for eyelashes like that!"

The eyelashes blinked and faced her. Tosh jumped nervously and smiled too enthusiastically, then blundered on with the first thing that came into her head.

"Found it alright?" She asked, waving her hand vaguely in the air, then muttered, "I mean, I know you found it alright. I meant it's white not brown. We haven't got any... brown that is. We all drink mostly coffee, but for some reason, we only seem to use white sugar, not that..." Her voice trailed away and she groaned, "You must think I'm a complete idiot!"

For the first time, Owen smiled properly at her, and then shook his head slowly, "Nah! besides Jack said you were a genius, " he said, "I don't think I've ever met one before, your my first." he said softly and took a sip of his drink.

A smile lingered around Toshiko's lips, he was a bit more than cute!

Suddenly realising that she was staring at him again, she turned and grabbed her own drink, then moved out onto the walkway.

"I'll show you the other way down," she blurted out, rushing past him.

When they reached the top of the spiral staircase Toshiko paused.

"That's the boardroom through there. We use it for meetings and there are full links through to all the computers and a display screen, so if there's something that everyone needs to see, then we use that."

Owen nodded, and glanced down the staircase, unsure if he should go first. Toshiko tried her best to smile vaguely, then moved forwards, and lead the way down to the floor of the hub.

"And that's the armoury, most of the time it's open- the doors at the back lead through to the garage for the SUV. If the hub goes into lock down it seals its self off," she said, waving her hand vaguely towards it.

"Jack's office is over there, we're up there," she nodded towards their workstations," And that's more or less it."

"Who uses that?" Owen asked pointing to a computer that was set up beside the staircase.

"That's Suzie's, she's out, trying to track something down. Probably won't be back for a couple of days," Tosh smiled, "I'm sure you'll get on fine."

Owen nodded and glanced towards the wooden decking that ran across the hub. "We go this way?" he asked, moving forwards. Toshiko following behind him.

"I think I'd better get you logged on to the system, then you can get access to any records you might need," she said.

Owen grimaced, "Not really done much with computers, I have enough trouble with a pen and paper!"

"I'm sure you'll be fine with it, it's mostly gooey," she said, smiling encouragingly towards him.

He looked baffled, "Gooey?" He paused, "I thought everyone used Windows."

"G-U-I. Graphic user interface," she smiled, "You'll soon get used to it."

"Hey! Where's mine?" Jack yelled, coming out of his office and seeing they both had a drink.

He shook his head and sighed, "Word of warning, Owen. Don't bother aspiring to management in this place- no perks. You want a drink? You have to make your own!" he grumbled, sprinting towards the doorway beside the settee.

"You got him logged onto the system yet, Tosh?" he yelled, as he passed.

"Just going to do that now," she replied, reaching the platform and turning towards Owen's work station.

"This is yours," she smiled at him, "Don't look so worried, it's..."

"Yeah, I know, gooey. By the time I've had lunch and done a couple of autopsies, it definitely will be!" he murmured.

Toshiko smothered a smile, he seemed to be relaxing a bit, losing the overly polite responses and automatically saying what he thought. Her gaze wandered towards his face, he had the most beautiful eyes.

Settling herself in front of the keyboard, she began to typing, "Right, first things first, let's get you logged on to the system, shall we?"

Finally satisfied that everything was correct, she looked towards Owen, "What I need now is a password. One you can remember without writing it down," she paused, seeing Owen's blank expression, she added, "Well, how about starting with something you think is creepy and then a name you like backwards?" she suggested

Owen gave her a pained expression, "Creepy?" He repeated, then slowly shaking his head, murmured, "Tintin- will that do?"

Toshiko stared at him, "Tintin? You mean the cartoon?"

Owen shrugged, "I dunno, always seemed weird, funny hair do," he said, his hand making vague swirling movements in the air.

"Okay, Tintin it is, and a name... backwards," she said, her hand hovering over the keyboard.

Owen blinked, "E-I-T-A-K," he spelt out slowly.

Toshiko typed in the name, then completed the process and waited, nodded, and smiled towards him.

"There, all done. It does a backup when you tell it to, and it will also do that automatically every time you log out,so if your working on multiple files it's usually easier to just log out and let it save it all for you."

Moving to one side, she waited as Owen took her place at the keyboard.

"It's quite straight forward. When you log on, whatever you were working on will be in folders," she smiled. "If you need to access anyone else's, just go into the system," she leaned across and punched two keys, "That's the shortcut to get you into the system, then you just navigate to whatever you want."

Owen watched the images swirling in front of him, nodded and then said, "Right, so... if I want to see a previous autopsy on something?" he peered down at the keyboard, uncertain which key to hit.

"If you know who wrote it, then you just..." She hit a key and a search box appeared, "Type their name in and it will bring up everything they've worked on," she smiled at him.

Owen nodded, "What if I don't know who wrote it?" He asked

"Then you can search by file name, or just go to all medical folders and then search for dates- if it's an autopsy. If it's something else then..." She hit another key, "Just go through the root list, if your not sure."

Straightening up, she added, "You'll soon get used to where everything is."

"So this password, it gets me into all files?" he asked

Tosh nodded, "Pretty well, there are a few that Jack has double protected, he's the only one who can open those, but only in case we get hacked. If you need to see them, just ask and he can clear them for you."

Jack rushed past them again, this time going in the opposite direction, "Tosh?" Jack shouted out to her, "Got a minute? I need a word."

Toshiko smiled at Owen, "Have a mooch around, I'll be back in a minute."

. . . .

Jack paused by his desk, turned and waited for her to catch him up, "So... how's it going so far?" He asked.

She smiled and nodded, "Alright- I think. He's logged onto the system now and I'll let him settle down with it a bit and then walk him through the autopsy record and display."

Jack nodded, "Good, there's the usual freezer box that he could make a start on."

He was just about to add something, when his computer made a soft beeping sound, he turned and stared at the screen. "I wondered how long it would take him."

"Someone's trying to access your locked files!" Tosh murmured, surprised.

Jack nodded, "Yep, guess who?"

Toshiko looked at the display,"Owen!" she said, surprised.

Jack turned back towards her, "Looking for information about Katie."

"Katie?" Tosh murmured, remembering the name he had chosen for his password.

"His fiancée. They were going to be married- the brain I brought back with the alien proliferation?" He reminded her.

"Do you think that was why he agreed to join us?" She asked, nervously.

"More than likely! He'll stay until he get access to that file," he added, glancing through the window towards Owen.

"Are you going to let him... get access to it?" she asked, quietly.

"When he's ready," Jack replied, adding, "When he's used to the idea of alien autopsies, and he knows about the Retcon."

"Do you think he'll stay... when he's found out what he wants to know?" she asked.

Would he stay then? that was the question- she found herself hoping that by then he might have more reasons to stay than go.

Jack shrugged, "Depends, on how welcome the Retcon seems once he knows the truth."

Toshiko looked towards Owen's workstation, not sure if she would want to stay somewhere like this, knowing something like that had happened to someone she loved.

"What time is it?" Jack stared at his watch, "Damn, I have to go and catch up with Suzie," he stood quickly, "I probably won't be back 'til a lot later, so just shut down when your ready."

Toshiko smiled and nodded, watching as he grabbed his coat from the stand and then marched out of the office.

"Tosh will sort you out," he said to Owen, as he passed him, pulling on his coat. "Toshiko, he's all yours... don't do anything I wouldn't do," and headed for the exit.

Following him out of the office, Toshiko smiled at Owen, who moved away from his computer, looked towards her and then hesitated, glancing towards the autopsy arch.

Leading the way, she walked onto the landing, and then down the staircase.

"The medical equipment is all standard, the only things you won't have come across before are the display and information links," she smiled encouragingly at him, and stepped back as far as she could to let him move past her.

"Bit cramped," he murmured, opening one of the storage doors and glancing inside, "Think this thing must have come out of the ark!"

Toshiko smirked, "Not far off- Victorian I think."

Owen winced, "Does it work properly?" he asked, glancing towards her.

"Never heard any complaints," she murmured.

"Yeah well, they wouldn't exactly be in a position to... any unusual smells?" He asked, then grinned at her.

"Not that I remember," she said smiling back at him. He had such a lovely smile, she thought suddenly, as she gazed absently at him, her head slowly tipping to one side.

Owen's smile faded, and his head mirrored the movement of her's, "You all right, Toshiko?" He asked, leaning towards her, and staring into her eyes.

Tosh blinked slowly and then she swallowed hard, "Yes, fine, sorry- distracted."

"You spend too long staring at computer screens, you should get out more," he commented, turning away from her.

Pushing the autopsy table to one side, he glanced down the low corridor behind it. "Where does that go to?" he enquired.

Toshiko closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Owen turned back, staring at her, "Are you sure your alright, luv?" he asked.

Toshiko blinked, "Yes, 'course- sorry," she laughed, embarrassed. "Long day," she murmured, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her.

"The tunnel- it goes to the loading bay, brings in... bodies mostly." She glanced towards him, he had turned away from her again, and was leaning over, peering down the tunnel.

"Does it double as an emergency exit, or what?" he asked and straightened up clearly wondering if there was another way out.

"No, not really, the access door is always locked, and in an emergency the hub goes into lock down, and when it does, the corridor seals it's self off."

Spotting a large freezer box standing against the wall, he picked it up, dumped it onto the table, then opened up the lid. It was full of plastic bags, each one neatly tagged and dated.

He took hold of the top one, and held it up, "What's this?" he asked

"The police send them over, they come in through the rift, they have to be categorised for species," she told him, watching as he dropped it back, and then picked up another one.

"Not very wide, is it? This rift," he looked towards her, "Can't be much of a threat if that's all that can get through it."

Toshiko giggled, "They don't start out that flat! It's just that when they arrive, they seem to be drawn to headlights and speed,"

"Oh, right!" Owen rotated the sample slowly, then pointed at the side of the box, "So, R-K is?"

"Road Kill," she replied, quietly.

"You get a lot of these, do you?"He enquired, dropping it back into the box and closing the lid.

"A few," she murmured, trying not to look evasive.

"How few?" he asked, warily.

Toshiko gave him a sickly smile and she blinked nervously then cleared her throat. "Well," she started, then glanced down,quickly, before she got side tracked by those eyelashes of his.

"That's the overspill, the rest are downstairs... we couldn't fit that one in so..."

"How many more are downstairs?" he demanded, staring at her.

"Thirty six...it was a quiet night," she murmured, concentrating on the ridges in the autopsy table.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed, then quickly apologised for swearing.

"Its alright, really," she said, smiling brightly, and immediately regretting looking into his eyes, this was getting ridiculous!

Trying to distract herself, she looked at her watch. "Sorry, there's something I have to check... upstairs," she murmured, and sprinted up the stairs.

Owen glanced across at the box, and groaned, "Thirty six," he said to himself, shrugged, and then followed Toshiko.

. . . .

Tosh stood in front of her workstation and sighed, the computer had finally found all the matches to the name she was looking for, "Six hundred and twelve," she murmured.

Owen stopped behind her and peered at the screen, "Looks like you've got almost as big a problem as I have," he said quietly, and smiled at her as she turned to look at him.

Toshiko gazed into his eyes, and found herself wondering, if she fainted, would he attempt mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Horrified he might get an idea of what she had just thought, she turned quickly away from him, and promptly banged into the side of her chair, wincing, she leaned over to rub her knee.

All Owen was aware of, was her peering vaguely at his face, then suddenly turning away, and apparently collapsing. Thinking that she was fainting, he instinctively grabbed hold of her, picked her up in his arms and started to move towards the settee.

Not expecting to suddenly find herself swept off her feet, Tosh panicked, and hit out automatically at the nearest target- which unfortunately turned out to be Owen's nose!

Startled by the sudden pain, Owen missed his stride, caught the leg of the coffee table with his foot, and ended up dumping her in a heap on the settee, narrowly avoiding falling on top of her, then colliding with the wall behind.

Toshiko finally managed to get herself into a sitting position, and looked up at Owen, who was clutching his nose, and checking cautiously to see if it was bleeding.

"Oh, I'm _so_ sorry," she said, moving as if she was going to stand up.

Owen backed away, "It's alright, you just, sit there for a minute, while I..." he glanced around, looking for a first aid kit, and checking his nose again, then smiled half heartedly down at her.

Toshiko looked dolefully up at him, what had she gone and done? She apologised over and over, all the time telling herself what a complete idiot she was.

"Stop fussing, I'm fine, honestly." he gave his fingers a final, cursory glance, decided that there was no bleeding, and turned his attention to Toshiko, who was getting increasingly agitated, and looked close to tears.

"I thought you were going to faint," he explained, keeping a wary eye on her, in case she decided to take another swing at him. "Just sit still and let me check you over," he said firmly, slowly moving closer.

Finally satisfied that she seemed alright, Owen straightened up.

"When was the last time you had your eyes tested?" he asked, "Only spending too many hours looking at those," he tipped his head towards the computer screens, "Don't help you know... I mean you seemed to be focusing strangely earlier- I noticed because you were looking at me at the time."

Toshiko groaned, she could feel her face glowing hotter and hotter, and she closed her eyes, not wanting to see the look on his face. She didn't want to think what he thought of her now!

"My eyesight's fine," she mumbled, fighting off the growing feeling, that she just wanted to sit there and wail loudly.

There was nothing else for it, she was going to have to have to go on the offensive. Suddenly jumping to her feet, she glared at him, "There is nothing wrong with my eyesight thank you very much," she repeated loudly, then marched towards the scanner that was sitting on a trolley by the autopsy steps, and began to drag it towards the gallery platform.

Turning back towards Owen's workstation, she activated the links to the display on the autopsy wall, then went back and turned on the scanner.

"Right!" she said, facing him again, her complexion still slightly pink. "I'll show you how to scan in those samples," pushed her glassed up towards the bridge of her nose, folded her arms across her chest, and gave him an impatient glare.

Owen blinked at her, clearly baffled by the sudden change of mood. Thinking perhaps she was a bit on the touchy side about her eyesight, he made a mental note to avoid mentioning it again and obediently went to collect the sample box.

Toshiko held her breath as he passed her, she watched him walking sedately down the stairs, then blinked wearily. What had she done? If he hadn't thought she was bordering on loopy before, now he would be convinced she'd got a fixation about her eyesight- or worse!

She had to act normally from now on, no smiling at him all the time, no staring at him, in fact no looking at him... well she'd have to sometimes. Perhaps if she just kept it to chest level? She bit her lip, maybe not.

Just stick to vague, she told herself, concentrate on the scanner and then leave him to it. Definitely the best idea, then put as much distance as possible between them, yes, that's what she would do.

Without really thinking she glanced towards the stairs just as he came into view, their eyes met, he smiled, and she smiled back.

Wearily she turned away,damn! The next few minutes was going to be hell on wheels, she just knew it!

. . . .

Toshiko showed Owen how to use the scanner, then decamped back to her workstation, once there she heaved a sigh of relief and collapsed down into her chair.

She could hear Owen, working away, the clicking of each scan as it completed. she knew it wouldn't be long before he was back, then what? She glanced at her watch, it was past seven o'clock!

The clicking of the scanner suddenly stopped, she heard it power down. Then listened to his footsteps as he moved towards his workstation.

There was no getting away from it- she was going to have to say something, and soon!

Just as she finally made her mind up that it was going to have to be now, Jack marched in through the side entrance, up the stairs and past her.

"Toshiko, Owen, you two still here? Show the poor man how to get out of this place for goodness sake."

Spotting the scanner had been moved, just as he passed the autopsy archway, Jack suddenly diverted that way.

"Oh great, some of the road kills been sorted- well done that man, only another thirty six to go," he announced cheerfully. "Okay, go, before I change my mind."

Toshiko didn't need telling twice, "Great, thanks,"she smiled at Jack's retreating back, then turned towards Owen, "I'll show you how to log off."

. . . .

Five minutes later Toshiko was explaining to Owen how to activate the rolling door, the alarms went off as usual.

Owen grimaced, "Can't they hear those things going off outside?" he asked, "Only if it's supposed to be a secret... whatever, don't they wonder where all that noise is coming from?"

Toshiko shrugged, "You can't hear it from above, at least I don't think you can."

"Those are the emergency stairs up to ground level, I'll show you where they come out when we get up there," she said, moving towards the lift. Owen glanced up the stairwell, then followed her.

. . . .

Daylight was failing as they left the Tourist information centre, a few people were on the level above them, but not much was moving. The rush hour had passed, and it was too early for those heading for the clubs and bars. Street lights were beginning to glow weakly, as they made their way towards the car park.

Toshiko outlined some of the procedures for dealing with alien artefacts. Owen listened, asking the odd question.

"This is mine," she said stopping in front of her car, "Can I give you a lift somewhere?" she asked, trying not to sound too eager.

Owen smiled, "No, thanks I fancy some fresh air, " he smiled, "Thanks for all your help."

"My pleasure. I'll see you tomorrow morning." She said.

"Night," he said, smiled briefly and turned away.

"Night," Toshiko murmured back, took out her car keys, then hesitated for a second, watching as he moved away, hands in pockets, elbows out, head down.

He jogged a few steps then turned back towards her, nodded, then jogged away. Seconds later he turned a corner, and was out of sight.

Smiling, Toshiko got into her car, pushed the key into the ignition, and put on the seat belt.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day- in even more ways than this one, she thought, putting the car into gear and pulling out of the parking bay.


End file.
